An Unassuming Hero

Dakota Life - 12/01/1998

"""An Unassuming Hero"" Michael J. Fitzmaurice, who served in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, received the Medal of Honor in 1973 for heroism. While fighting in Khe Sanh against the North Vietnamese, the enemy threw three explosive charges into his bunker, but Fitzmaurice was able to throw two of the devices out. Using his flack vest, he threw himself on the third. He sustained various injuries, including the partial loss of sight in one eye and double ruptured ear drums. Twenty-five years later, the South Dakota State Veterans home in Hot Springs has been renamed in honor of Michael J. Fitzmaurice."